We will be closed New Years Day.
We will be open New Years Eve for regular hours. I have a feeling there will be some hanging out and drinking going on, so if you like that sort of thing, come on by.

Yesterday Danny built up a set of wheels that got him pretty excited:

Stan's Alpha road rims (made to run tubeless), laced up to White Industries high flange track hubs, and super fat bladed, headless Hoshi spokes. Our buddy asked for some flashy wheels to compliment his new Lynskey track bike, we think these will do the trick.

Check it out, we have a new page to list our sale items that we are motivated to move (new and used). The link is on the left column of the main page. We will be regularly adding items that we are tired of looking at, and removing items as they sell, so check it out often. Deals will be had.

After the sale of Litespeed, the company the Lynskey family nurtured to such great heights, they decided to get back into the bike business. Their newest addition to an already well-represented stable is the titanium Sportive.

With tube surfaces treated with what Lynskey call an industrial mill ﬁnish – a rough, wire-brushed effect that gives a subdued sheen – the Sportive strikes a handsome note and provides a solid and reliable platform for anything from a quick 45-minute training loop to an audax brevet.

Ride & handling: Immediately likeable; quick responses combined with comfortWe eagerly swung a leg over this great machine and found it to be immediately likeable, with a sweetness of ride quality and handling. Miles of groomed dirt towpath are a piece of cake – the bike soaks up pebble-induced vibrations with gusto. Equally at home in a highly strung peloton as on a dusty towpath, it responds quickly to pedal and steering input. While trialling a local audax event, staying in a tightly knit bunch felt easy. When the pace started feeling a bit slow, the Sportive had the lightness and willingness to leapfrog to the next gruppetto in search of a more vigorous speed. While the front end of the bike feels strong and torsionally rigid carving through high-speed corners, this has no noticeable effect on front end comfort. In contrast, a simple deﬂection test of the rear dropouts revealed a considerable springiness in the stays. Yet with the wheel clamped in and closing off the structure, the back end always keeps up with the front, while providing noticeable shock absorption. With a longish head tube and shortish top tube forming part of a mildly sloping geometry, the Sportive will go a long way towards keeping you in a pleasant comfort zone, minimising the usual shoulder and neck aches and pains on those longer rides. Whether you use it for an easy stroll, screaming quarter-mile or the full 600 miles of an audax brevet, the Lynskey is always ready. Even when the going gets rough, the Sportive will do it in comfort and style.

Frame & equipment: Well thought out chassis plus robust yet light finishing kitMade of cold-worked 3AL 2.5V titanium, the frame features a ﬁne balance of sophisticated tube manipulation and more straightforward sections, with welded cable guides in all the right places and riveted bottle cage bosses. The rear triangle is comprised of gently curved, constant diameter round seatstays, below which lies a graceful set of oval-round chainstays. Anchoring the rear wheel are some very thick and burly dropouts, decorated with a three-leaf clover cutaway design for a little aesthetic enhancement. A standard head tube with reinforced zones for traditional headset cups ﬁnishes off the front of the bike. Single eyelets on the rear allow you to join in with traditional audax crowds if required, with plenty of clearance for a decent-sized tyre and mudguard. Complementing the well-proven Shimano Ultegra drivetrain on our test bike was a nicely homogenous ﬁnishing kit and wheels by Pro-Lite, which were robust yet light.

They are completely correct, it is a sweet bike (like everything Lynskey makes).

Well, we planned a shop ride, and it went off without anybody from the shop. Fortunately Danny showed up, just a little late, and managed to save face for us and reeled in the riders. Normal north foothills loop, there was a handful of guys riding and fun was had by all.

Then leftovers, along with beer, tequila, and rum, was consumed in quantity:

We were smart enough to hang a hammock precariously high off the ground that day:

Nobody was having any fun:

We received a fantastic gift this week, a masturbating monkey necklace that Richaround acquired somewhere and new it belonged here:

The holidays are here. The shop is slow, the weather is cold, it's our season to goof off a bit. Getting very excited about a day of snow cat snowboarding in Monarch that we are beginning to plan. Ohhh thats going to be good.

And lastly, something bike related. Just finished installing a bunch of XTR parts that were purchased on Pricepoint, and brought to me for installation, which as many people know, is quite a pet peeve for those of us at the local bike shop (as Rule #58 states: Never buy bikes, parts or accessories online. Going into your local shop, asking myriad inane questions, tying up the staff’s time, then going online to buy is akin to sleeping with your best friend’s wife, then having a beer with him after. You may as well go into your local shop and spit in the owners face. Online is evil and will be the death of the bike shop. If you enter a shop with parts you have bought online and expect them to fit them, be prepared to be told to see your online seller for fitting and warranty help.)

I was looking at Pricepoint with a customer, who was using the website to shop for stuff and then come in here to buy from me, which is awesome. I noticed the headset he was referring to was listed with a$90 suggested retail: Iodine C headset at Pricepoint, and is on sale for $70 at 22% off (such a deal).
Then I got onto QBP's website, the biggest bike parts distributor in the US, and found that same headset with a suggested retail of $70. ZING! Pricepoint is here to make money too, and they aren't your friend! $70 is what every LBS should sell this for, at most.

I find this kind of satisfying, as the Magicshine has irritated me since the day I heard about them. Blatant rip-off of the Lupine Tesla light, the Magicshine promised unbelievable lumen output for hundreds less than their competitors.
At 24 Hours of Old Pueblo last year, I started hearing rumors of the chargers and batteries not being UL rated, and of things catching on fire while charging. This all came from a sales rep for another light company, so I didn't think too much of it, but found the info entertaining.
Well, 8 months later, I guess some other people have had similar problems:

What should I do with my battery now?
We recommend that you store them outside in a safe, protected place. Your recall notice will give more information.

Outside in a safe, protected place? Are things exploding? Spontaneous combustion?
The thing that bothered me most about the Magicshine was their astronomically false claims about lumen output. Our un-scientific tests comparing the Magicshine to similarly rated lights from Lupine and Light and Motion, in the shop bathroom, led us to believe that outputs were exaggerated by at least double, if not triple the actual amount.

So, while your Magicshine battery sits in your back yard, in a cement bunker, come on by and check out some of the lights we have from Light n Motion. Made in the good ol' USA, passing all sorts of pesky safety regulations, subject to irritating EPA regulations, these things are extremely reliable, have extremely bright output, and are a good value to boot.
How about 25% off any Light and Motion light if you trade in your Magicshine. We'll take all the batteries, pile them in one place, and see if anything burns down or explodes.

That's all, I'm done gloating about the Magicshine.

Lastly, we're working on a regular night ride again, now that it's getting properly cold. Tuesday night seems to be the best night for many. We leave from the shop as early as possible, usually that means at the trailhead by 6:45 or so. Hopefully we will be out this coming Tuesday, probably north foothills from Ebudito trailhead, so keep it in mind, and I'll let you all know if we're gonna make it or not soon.

Awesome, thanks for reading, and thanks for coming into our shop and buying stuff and letting us fix your bikes and allowing us to live the dream and play with bikes for a living.

We've never been open on Black Friday before (the Friday after Thanksgiving), but we've got plans for this year!

So, meet up in the foothills, top of Montgomery Embudito, for a morning group mtb ride, 9am. We'll do a mellow turkey burner ride.

Then, back to the shop to open at noon. Everybody come on by, bring leftovers, a chair, and of course the beverage of your choice (as long as it's not Fat Tire, Blue Moon or Corona, yeah we're picky bastards). We are going to have a leftover potluck, watch bike movies of all sorts, drink plenty of beer, and generally try to work as little as possible.

That's our idea. So while everybody else is battling to the death for $12 laptops and $18 washing machines, come hide out with us, eat, drink, watch movies, and talk some trash.

I just built up a Giant Cypher, woman specific 5" travel bike, and it looks good:

This particular one is an Extra Small, Giant suggests that is fits gals from 5'2" to 5'4".

This is the same basic frame as the Trance X, and on both models Giant has made some very nice upgrades for 2011, such as: Post mount rear brake

And press fit BB96 Bottom bracket

And tapered 1.5 to 1.125 headset and steerer tube:

Giant didn't seem to hype up the changes they made to the Trance/Cypher much for 2011, but they are nice changes and the bikes look great.
We also have this model in size small showing up in the next couple of days.

Yesterday Danny and I (Lucero) participated in the Day of The Tread century, on our new tandem. I was on the back. The bike is a bit small for a 6 foot tall stoker, so I had a face full of Danny's bony back for the entire 100 miles... at least we have a good looking jersey.

We approached the ride with some trepidation, having both raced ourselves into the ground on Saturday's cross races, and also due to the fact that we had logged about 30 minutes on the bike so far. But everything went better than we could have hoped for, the weather was great, we had a big tailwind on the long climb up to Placitas, and the bike worked flawlessly.

The bike we rode is a San Rensho tandem, a beautiful and rare bicycle that received many complements along the ride. It was the first time I had spend more than a couple of minutes on the back of a tandem, and although the experience was intense at times, I'm happy to have done it, and I'm sure we'll be out terrorizing another century sooner than later.

The ride took us four and a half hours. We rode the whole time with our friends John and Brad, who were also on a tandem, and looking suave with matching Bikeworks jerseys (thanks guys).

Beyond that, we've just been knee deep in Cross season. Getting out to as many of the New Mexico Cross series races as we can. The races have been an absolute blast, well organized, fun courses, great atmosphere, what more can you ask for (except maybe free beer at the finish, but that probably won't happen until Bikeworks organizes a cross race). I encourage everybody to come and check it out.

I leave you with this, which was obviously written about our dear Swinton:

It is their new Sportive model, built up with Sram Apex. This is the bike we are getting. Normally they send us frames and build kits, but they asked me if they could build this one and take pics of it for their website before we got it. So the one on their website will be the one in our shop.

We had a crew of 7 head up for a South Boundary adventure on Sunday. Parked at the bottom, and shuttled ourself up to the Palo Flascado pass, to do Elliot Barker portion of the ride.

It helps to have a big truck every so often.

Unfortunately, we weren't 10 miles in to the ride when Scott "got all Scott" on his wheel, and broke it in a very unfixable way:

Thats Marc and I making a valiant attempt to re-hab a blown up freehub body, but it was to no avail. Pedaling the bike was useless, as it would just freewheel forward.

So, rather than doing the logical thing and turning back, hiking for maybe an hour and spending the next 4 hours waiting in the truck for us to return, Scott decided to "harden the f*ck up" and just finish the ride anyway:

We took turns helping him push the bike up hills, we towed and pushed each other along the flat sections, and then on the descents, Scott would hop back on his ride and proceed to school us as usual.

The leaves were changing, and the views were fantastic.

Danny was looking lovely in the most worn out, stretched out, gnarly pair of shorts I've seen in a while:

And Charlie was looking lovely because he is Charlie, and is always looking lovely:

It was so much fun.

I have a GPX file for the ride, if you are interested in going and checking it out. I don't think the route we took is the most common one, but according to my sources, it is the best way to go.

In case you aren't familiar, the ProCross is wicked awesome. I highly recommend that you come and buy it. It will make you fast, good looking, witty, it's amazing what this bike will do for you.

Also, we have a pretty large collection of forks on the wall,

We have Fox 40's, new and lightly used, a 2010 Rock Shox Revelation U-Turn Air 20mm Maxle, a 2011 Boxxer Race with custom Giant colors, a Fox 831, a Marzocchi Bomber 44 ATA Micro 15mm thru axle, and a couple of used Marzocchi 888's. For you? Very good price! Come in and talk if you need something to connect your front wheel to your frame that goes boingy boingy, deals will be made.

And, lastly for today, we just got a mountain of 2011 Giro helmets in today, so all our 2010 models are 30% off:

We have about 10 helmets left, random selection, come in and check them out.

If these pictures seem unusually crappy, it's because Swinton bought us a $40 camera, and surprise surprise, it's lousy. You see, it's the camera's fault that he looks like an angry orangutan.

We got some new Bikeworks ABQ socks in the shop last week. Here are some pics of me modeling them, for your viewing pleasure:

I know what you are thinking, and you are right, I am too sexy for my socks.

We also are selling bottles to help the Lobo Cycling team:

They are Specialized bottles (which are the best), and they are good looking, and they support your local collegiate cycling team, and they are $8.99.

And lastly, I've put some sale stickers on our 2010 bikes that we have still. 20% Off, we have a couple of Giant Trance X1's (med and large) a Giant Trance X2 (large) and a couple of Giant Seek 2's.

Yesterday Giant shipped us 13 bikes off our 2011 order, including a couple of Cross Bikes, the TCX 1, just in time for cross season, as well as some Glory 0's and Glory 1's, which are always fun to have.

We also have a 2011 Trance X2 in the shop, which I built up yesterday. With Shimano 10 speed drivetrain, a new tapered steerer fork, and extremely color coordinated, it is a very nice looking bike.

Dan has been tired lately so I thought I'd write a blog for him. I hope everyone remembers to get there bikes in tip top shape for the Fall. I believe it is going to be the best one for riding in years, with great colors and a full Indian Summer. I would like to remind reader of the last Time Trial event out in Bernalillo this Saturday. I was coaxed by the Dans to go out last Sat. and it was a lot of fun- the hard work is over quickly. Plenty of people are riding it with their plain old road bikes too.

In other news, the new Giant 29er Full Suspension is starting to ship to dealers and we are putting together our order. If you want one, give us a shout (and a deposit). This bike will go quickly and its doubtful they will have extras at the warehouse for awhile.

I would like to give a shout out to Dr. Bernstein, who just completed the Leadville 100 bike race. He buckled-down, trained hard, and with Bikeworks help, had no mechanical breakdowns the whole time. I told him I would do it with him next year, but I was into my second Double IPA from Marble Brewing at that point so that was probably a lie.

The photo is a picture of some of us on the trails on the back of our beloved Sandia Mountains. I think he just dabbed.

Researchers at Granada University in Spain have come across a discovery that will undoubtedly please athletes and sports enthusiasts - a pint of beer post-workout or match is better at rehydrating the human body than water.

Professor Manuel Garzon, a member of Granada's medical faculty, made the finding after tests on 25 students over several months. Researchers believe that it is the sugars, salts, and bubbles in a beer that may help people absorb fluids more quickly.

The subjects in the study were asked to run on a treadmill at temperatures of 104F (40C) until they were close to exhaustion. Once they had reached the point of giving up, researchers measured their hydration levels, motor skills, and concentration ability.

Half of the subjects were given two half pints of Spanish lager to drink, and the other half were given just water.

Garzon said that the rehydration effection in those who were given beer was "slightly better" than those who were given only water. He also believes that the carbon dioxide in beer helps quench thirst more quickly, and that beer's carbohydrates replace calories lost during physical exertion.

The average person loses around 1 liter (33oz) of water for every hour of exercise in sweat. Rehydrating after a workout is crucial, as a lack of hydration is more likely to make one feel tired, fuzzyheaded, and suffer from headaches.

Based on the results of the study, researchers recommend moderate consumption of beer as a part of athletes' diets. "Moderate consumption" for men is 500ml per day, and for women is 250ml per day.

So that explains why Babe Ruth was so good. His method of training was nearly 100 years ahead of its time.

That explains why everybody who comes and hangs out at Bikeworks after their ride is so fast!

At the National Champs races this past weekend in Sol Vista, CO. Bikeworks had a large contingent of team members racing.
Pictured above are Jake, Tone, and Sean (left to right). Jake finished 2nd in Cat 2 4X, Tone finished 5th in Cat 2 DH (25-29), and Sean finished 1st in Cat 2 4X and 5th in Cat 2 DH (19-25). Looking good fellas.

Furthermore, Bikeworks racer Matson Hunter is the Cat 1 4X National Champ, taking 1st in the 19-25 age group. The boy will be pro soon.

Locally, Bikeworks racer Alex Leonard took 2nd Place in Cat1 19-29 at the Sandia Crest race. 3rd place overall in Cat 1.

In other racing news, Bikeworks is the new sponsor for the UNM Lobos cycling team. We are excited about it, and they are excited about it. So everybody is excited, and that is good.

Speaking of UNM, there is a new race this year that the UNM Cycling team is putting together. It is the "Back to School Special", taking place on August 28th and 29th. There will be a XC race on the 28th around Oak Flats, and a DH race on the 29th going off from Cedro Peak.
For more info, call or come by the shop. We have flyers with all the info, but I'm not sure those details are up on the Interweb anywhere yet.

And if anybody from the Bikeworks crew was out racing, and I've left you out, send me a note and let me know.

I got to watch the World Cup final, watch the days Tour stage, and go for a ride yesterday. It was a pretty good day.

Of course most people know that the World Cup game was a bit of a stinker, but at least Spain won in the end. However, yesterday's stage of the Tour de France was phenomenal. Had there not been a sleeping baby on the couch, I would have been yelling at the TV.

Is everybody thoroughly sick of Versus coverage yet? It seems like the first showing of the day is decent, and then every replay from there on out gets progressively worse, until prime time when you get Bobke blabbing about stuff unrelated to the race, 50% commercials, and all sorts of "special interest" crap that are really elaborate advertisements.
So my suggestion: go to http://cyclingtorrents.nl/ and sign up as a member, and download your tour coverage. Yesterday there was the coverage from ITV4, a Britsh channel I believe, with the commercials removed. It was fantastic.
Also, if you are wanting to watch the live coverage in the morning, plenty of streaming options are available. I would suggest http://www.cyclingfans.com/ to find a nice video stream.

In shop news, I'm working on getting some new socks made, ones that will match our jerseys nicely. What does everybody think about sock height? I personally have been liking my socks pretty tall lately, but I would hate to buy a bunch of tall socks and then hear everybody ask for shorter ones.

First thing I thought of when I saw the new design was my old German freeride bike, Der Fusion Whiplash, that I aquired whilst at Manitou (they aren't imported into the U.S.) Shock placement, rocker placment, and shock mounted to the chainstays are all similar:

All winter long we do night rides in the freezing cold, working hard the whole time to stay convinced that we are having a good time. Then we talk about how nice it will be in the summer to do some night rides, getting out late when it's finally cooled off from the day, and riding late into the night. Then summer comes, and we don't do it. Well at least I don't do it. My lights get put away after racing in February at Old Pueblo, and they don't come out again until I start thinking about racing Old Pueblo the following winter.

So last night I got out for what may have been my first late night summer ride, and it was freaking awesome! I met Charlie and Richaround at about 9:30, which was the earliest I could make it up to the foothills after getting my boy to bed. It had rained earlier in the day, the trails were as grippy as the north foothills can be, but not a spot of mud anywhere. And as an added bonus, there was a full moon (or very close to a full moon). The air was cool with more humidity than usual, of course we didn't see anybody else on the trail, and we had a great time.

As we finished the ride and rolled up to our cars, it started to rain again. We had timed our ride perfectly. A post ride beer sitting in the battlewagon, watching the rain fall on the windshield, BS'ing and reminiscing about causing trouble as kids and the assorted things that were chosen to be thrown at vehicles in the search for entertainment (eggs, water balloons, dirt clods, and of course pastry dough).

It was one of the most fun rides I've had in the North Foothills, and completely worth sacrificing a couple of hours of sleep for. So from now on, the after-the-kids-are-asleep ride will no longer be a thing of myth. I'll give a heads up next time we're planning on getting out late, and maybe some of you will join us.

In shop news, almost all or our sponsored racers are up in Crested Butte this weekend, racing their little hearts out just because they love Bikeworks so much and want to make us look good.

Our boy Alex will be there racing XC and trying to follow up with his Super D win at Angel Fire a few weeks ago

He did the race on our Transition Covert demo bike, and has borrowed it again for this weekend. I hear in Angel fire he beat 2nd place by something like 20 seconds. Beefcake! Clearly, it was because of the bike.

In other racing news, Swinton took a win in the A race at the Tuesday Night Crits this week. He was there supposedly to help out our buddy Bradner, who is currently leading the points race for the TNC's and should be in good shape to take the win for the series. However, Swinton being the glory stealing attention whore, took off solo with three laps to go and solo'd for the win, leaving Bradner to fend for himself. We're very proud of Danny though, congrats.

This coming Tuesday is the finale of the Tuesday Night Crit Series. I believe we will be there in Bikeworks style (i.e. BBQ and beer) to cheer on our racers and heckle anybody who looks like they are taking things too seriously (it is a training race, remember). So come on by and join us. Hopefully we'll have a jersey or two winning a race or two, and if not, we'll at least have grilled meat and beer.

That's about all I've got. Going out to Tunnel, meeting our favorite Doctor at 8am if anybody is interested in watching me flog myself around Otero on my singlespeed. Now I've got to go check out Bike Snob, haven't checked his site all week, I've got catching up to do.

Here at Bikeworks we love our customers. In order to show our customers how much we appreciate them, we are implementing a new policy as of tomorrow.

Bikeworks ABQ Customer Appreciation Policy:
When you leave our store, at least one owner of Bikeworks ABQ will say / yell "Thanks for coming by, Love you!" on your way out. It will be our way of letting you know that we indeed love you, our customer.
If you manage to leave Bikeworks without receiving a hearty "love you!" from Dan and/or Dan and/or Tony (and/or sometimes Charlie, maybe), upon your next visit you will be entitled to a "wicked high-five" and a Free Beer! (Must be of legal drinking age. Under-age customers who do not receive a hearty "love you" upon departure will be entitled to two "wicked high fives," or one "up high - down low while walking past each other high five" a-la Top Gun.)

We began experimenting with the new policy in the store today, and for the most part had very positive results. We received at least one "love you" in return, a "good to know", a few silent responses, but no angry responses or threats to cause bodily harm to us.

We are currently considering expanding this policy to include phone calls as well. For example, when leaving a message about a bike repair, you would get something such as:

Hey this is Dan from Bikeworks. Just calling to let you know we got your bike all tuned up and everything looked good. You can come pick it up whenever is convenient, we are open ten to six Tuesday thru Saturday and our number is eight eight four oh three four one if you have any questions Love you bye.

Obviously this is something we are doing for you, the customer, and therefore we are very interested in hearing what you think about our new policy. Please feel free to comment directly on this site, or email us if you feel you have more to say than what will fit in a comment, or call us if you feel that typing out everything that you have to say will take forever and it would be best if you just told us on the phone.

We Lied!
We will be open tomorrow, Saturday the 12th, for normal hours.
Danny became unexpectedly ill on Tuesday night, was out of work for Wednesday and Thursday, but is back and better than ever today.
However, he has no intention of racing Saturday, so we are going to work instead (yaaayyy).

So, come on by. We'll be trying to play catchup on repairs from the week, watching some Soccer, and sipping on the keg of Marble IPA that I tapped 5 minutes ago.

Also, Tony will be up at Pajarito for the Punishment, so if you want to watch some Downhill racing, or volunteer to help with the race, or help him drink the keg of IPA that Marble donated, go check it out. It will also likely be much cooler up there than here in the 'Burque.

Thanks for everybody's patience this week, it's been a crazy week for us, we've been a little behind on repairs and what not, but it's all coming together.

With Cross Country, Downhill, Four Cross, and Super D events, the Chile Challenge is always a great race and a blast for spectators.
The Dan's will not be racing this year, but Tony will be there along with a whole bunch of other Bikeworks racers to represent for the shop.

Trail Report: Windsor trail in Santa Fe is riding great! The stream is still a little high but nothing you can't at least wade across. We only made it to Pacheco canyon road before we had to turn back but I am confident that the trail is clear all the way to the bottom of the ski area. Chamiza and Sidewinder are clear and as good as I've seen them in awhile. This means most of our trails are clear of snow now. Only the highest stuff, above 10,000 ft, is holding on for a few more weeks. I'm guessing South Boundary will be open by mid-June. Get out and enjoy it all.

First, a Transition Covert built up for our Demo fleet (size large). This is a very cool bike, been getting some good press lately. Now that we have one in the shop, we are wondering why we didn't get one long ago (beside from the fact that they are frequently sold out, Transitions #1 selling bike it turns out).

So far so good. Sent the bike out for its first demo ride, and the customer came back and ordered one for himself. Then our very picky buddy Chris B. took it out, and had plenty of positive to say about it. Last year after riding every 5" travel bike under the sun, Chris settled on a Giant Trance X0. However, he said had he ridden this bike, it would have definitely been in contention. He also said "this bike likes White Mesa", which I thought sounded good.

Next, I got a new 29er frame to hang all my fancy pants parts on.

It's a Tomac Flint 29 frame. A very nicely shaped aluminum frame with eccentric BB and all the cable stops, this bike is ready for gears or single speed. My large frame came in right at 4 lbs, and my bike weighed 20.5 lbs before I put pedals on it (I typically weigh bikes with all the necessary parts to make them rideable, however, Danny was anxious and put this one on the scale before I had finished building it).
What you can't see in the photos is a very nice sparkly white paint job, great looking welds, huge amounts of tire clearance in back. Overall, it's just a very well put together frame.
I went out yesterday for its maiden voyage (and my first ride in 2 weeks). I definitely could tell the frame was laterally stiffer than my previous one (a steel Spot), and the bike cornered very predictably, allowing me to really feel what the tires were doing.
I didn't give much though to the geometry while riding, which I see as a good thing. The bike generally felt correct, and didn't require my attention to make it do what I wanted it to. Definitely doesn't feel like a cumbersome 29er, as some niners will. This bike actually has such short chainstays that my chain is 1 link shorter than it was on the Spot, and that was with the eccentric BB adjusted pretty far forward.
It's sweet. Also, the frame sells for somewhere around $500, which is a screaming deal. Unfortunately I believe they are completely sold out, but if you are interested let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Lastly, Tony built up a damn good looking Commencal Supreme DH Saturday morning:

We've built and sold a whole lot of these bikes over the past couple years, but they still manage to get the boys excited. Especially when all the parts are just right, and of course, matching in color.
Industry Nine wheels, a very red Race Face crankset, and Tony's personal touch, a gold chain:

To top things off, the 2011 Fox 40's should be arriving today or tomorrow, and this bike will be receiving one promptly.
I can't remember which one of the teenage Los Alamos DH crew that we sponsor got this bike, but whoever he is, he is stoked I assure you (perhaps if those kids didn't travel in such large packs I would have a chance at learning all their names, but honestly, I don't see that happening).

Well, that's what I have for today. We will be deciding in the next couple of days about any special closures over the next few weeks (with the Pajarito Punishment and the Chile Challenge coming up, we have a tendency to sneak out of the shop a bit).

Lucero had his baby! A strapping young man by the name of Oliver decided to join the world on Wed. of last week. Congrats Dan and Kristi.

That said, we apologize for having to close Saturday the 15th (today) and hope you will bear with us until Mr. Lucero returns- red eyed from lack of sleep of course and slower than ever mentally speaking (two kids will do that to you).

Trail Report: Cedro and Otero are riding beautifully of course. I haven't checked out faulty or Oso yet but I'm guessing they are now clear of snow and ready to ride. I hiked La Luz a few days ago and there were still large snow drifts in a number of places. Looking down the ski area from the top also showed a number of drifts and snowfields- but less than I expected to see. I think 10 k will be mostly rideable in a week or two if it isnt already. I will go check next week and report back. If you feel inclined; for a few weeks this spring help us all out and carry a hatchet or bow saw on your rides to help clear the trails. I made it out to the Zuni mountains (by Gallup) a couple weeks ago and they were 95% rideable then- they should be perfect right now. I will head to Santa Fe the week after next and check out the situation there.